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Number 175

Journalist Daniel Coyle spent five years reporting on “talent hotbeds,” like sports training centers and music academies that produce world class performers. During the same period, he visited and wrote about neuroscience laboratories and research centers studying how brains work and how talent is developed.

In “The Little Book of Talent,” Coyle debunks the old assumption that talent is mostly genetic. The new view, he says, is that talent is determined far less by our genes and far more by our activity, “specifically, the combination of intensive practice and motivation that produces brain growth."

In this book Coyle doesn’t explain the science that underlies the fresh ideas about how people can work smarter and become expert more quickly. Rather, he simply shares 52 brief suggestions for improving your skills, including these tips:

• Buy a notebook. Coyle says that a high percentage of top performers (like Serena Williams and Eminem) keep some form of daily performance journal. He suggests that you write write down and reflect on stuff like results from today, ideas for tomorrow and goals for next week.
• Steal from experts. Coyle says that all improvement is about absorbing and applying new information, and the best source of information is top performers. When you steal from the best, observe them closely, focusing on specifics. Notice concrete facts, like the angle of a golfer’s elbow.
• Find the sweet spot. According to Coyle, “There is a place, right on the edge of your ability, where you learn best and fastest.” He calls it the “sweet spot.” In your comfort zone, you’re working, but not reaching or struggling, and at least 80 percent of your attempts are successful. But when you are in your sweet spot you experience frustration and are alert to errors. It’s as if you’re stretching hard for a nearly unreachable goal, and only 50 to 80 percent of your attempts succeed. To find your sweet spot, ask yourself what you could almost do if you tried your hardest. Go a little beyond the boundary of your current ability.
• Break moves into chunks. Our brains work best when every skill is broken down into smaller pieces. Coyle suggests that to begin “chunking,” ask yourself: What is the smallest single element of this skill that I can master? And what other chunks link to that chunk?
• Commit to brief, daily practice sessions. If your practice is intense, “small daily practice ‘snacks’ are more effective than once-a-week practice 'binges.’” Coyle explains that the reason has to do with the way our brains grow, in small increments each day.
• Notice your mistakes. Don’t avoid the facts when you fail. It’s a learning opportunity. Coyle says “People who pay deeper attention to an error learn significantly more than those who ignore it.”
• Before sleep, make a mental movie. A useful habit developed by many top performers is to visualize their idealized performance. Coyle describes this “as a way to rev the engine of your unconscious mind.”

Number 174

Have you ever been in a situation where you make suggestions or take steps that seem obvious, but the people around you act like you’ve just invented the next killer App?

One explanation for the gap between your achievement and their reaction may be that you have finally reached a level of considerable expertise. It’s like when you’re watching athletes who have been honing their skills for years. Their everyday performance seems amazing to you. And if you have worked hard to become an expert in your field, your routine work may have the power to astound your colleagues.

But if you feel unease when you’re given praise for your work, you may be suffering from a bit of the “imposter phenomenon.” Social psychologists say that it is not uncommon for high achievers to experience secret discomfort when their work is praised.

If you feel like an imposter, you might believe that so far you have been lucky, and that your success is the result more of external factors than your own work. Or perhaps you suspect that you are somehow creating a fake impression of competence, and that you’re not nearly as skillful as you appear. Or maybe you always want to discount your achievement, feeling a constant need to explain that your success is really not a big deal.

Another explanation is simply that you have never learned to take a compliment. Perhaps you grew up in a family where people didn’t gracefully say “thank you” in response to praise. And now your knee-jerk response to positive commentary is to minimize your worthiness.

Finally, when praise for your work makes you squirm, perhaps it is because you know that you really were not doing your best. And maybe you think that your employer’s standards are just too low.

Regardless of the reasons that praise on the job makes you uncomfortable, a few techniques will make it much easier to take:

• Set specific goals. If you define precise goals, and your bosses agree to them, ultimately everybody will know whether or not you are successful. If you write down measurable goals, create an action plan for achieving them, and then follow the plan, your success will be hard to miss. You will find praise easier to accept when it clearly reflects the facts of what happened.
• Ask for details. Sometimes positive sounding feedback doesn’t actually feel good because it seems vague and over-blown. If you feel like you could have done much better, but they say “terrific job,” it is hard to know what is really going on. If you have a good relationship with your boss, ask for a more specific critique of various aspects of your accomplishments.
• Calm your self-talk. Maybe the problem isn’t so much their nice words as the way you comment upon those words inside your head. If your habitual response to praise is to tell yourself “you should do much better” it’s no wonder you don’t enjoy it. Notice your internal response to positive feedback, and replace negative refrains with phrases like, “it feels good when they recognize my hard work.”
• Learn to accept compliments. When somebody comments on your good work, say “thank you.” Praise is a gift, and it is rude and unkind to rebuff the giver with phrases that reject their compliments. Cultivate a sense of gratitude for their effort, and express that gratitude with genuine words of appreciation for their tribute. If you feel a need to even things up, find a way to compliment them in return.

Number 173

Whether you are moving to an entirely different organization or just taking on an additional project for your long-time employer, the first few months of your new assignment can be critical. In the early days of your new role, you will lay a foundation that may shape your activities for years to come. While you are getting started, people may watch you carefully, drawing big conclusions from even your small steps.

While you are planning your transition, think about these strategies:

• Know what the job is. It is always important to know who your boss is and what he or she wants from you. At the start of something new it is vital – but not always easy -- to develop a clear idea of what your boss expects. Learn as much as possible about what your boss needs and likes. Have a direct conversation in which you identify benchmarks and timeframes. Your goal is for you and your boss to have the same realistic expectations about what you will achieve in the coming months.
• Don’t try to do everything.
  • Avoid the mistake of trying to accomplish so much in the early days that nothing really gets done. A better approach is to concentrate much of your energy on a few top priorities.
  • Remember the “80/20 Rule,” which says that most rewards in any situation come from a small number of the opportunities. Stated another way, the Rule suggests that about 80 percent of your results will come from about 20 percent of your inputs. While the numbers “80” and “20” aren’t absolute, this principle suggests that a small proportion of your activity always accounts for a large portion of your productivity. For example, if you’re a vendor, about 80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your customers.
  • The idea is to get the biggest bang for your buck. Think of all the things you might be doing, then concentrate much of your time and energy on the relatively few activities -- the vital 20 percent -- most likely to yield the biggest results.
• Spot early victories. Look for ways to get quick results that demonstrate that you are moving in the right direction:
  • Work your network. Make a list of key colleagues, customers and other stakeholders and methodically set up opportunities to visit with them, listening carefully to their input.
  • Grasp low-hanging fruit. As you are making the rounds, look for ways you can deliver quick relief or easy-to-achieve improvements. For example, if people say that meetings have been long and pointless, structure a few brief, tightly managed meetings with clear outcomes. If they complain about a lack of information, start a weekly, one-page bulletin.
  • Create a plan. Draft and share a plan setting out your goals and key milestones.
  • Start a pilot project. When you have an idea of what you want to do, pick the most favorable venue and launch a small initiative that will test and illustrate your approach. Be lavish with your thanks and praise if it succeeds, and learn from any mistakes.

  Commit to productive habits. It takes discipline to get off to a great start. Think about the kind of person likely to succeed, and start acting like that person. Identify practices and standards that will make you effective:

  • Select productivity tools -- like a calendar, “to do” list and planning approach -- that will keep things moving smoothly.
  • Commit to systems and processes. such as those that shape the way you follow up on meetings, thank people for their contributions, answer questions and share information.
  • Manage your energy, so that you can be your best, by committing to a schedule of exercise, healthy sleep, down time, and activities that bring you renewal.
  • Know yourself. Think about your past performance, get feedback from colleagues you trust, and consider assessments like the Myers-Briggs instrument. Acknowledge your weaker points and be aware of the kinds of tasks and challenges you tend to avoid. Create practices that will build on your strengths and challenge you to overcome your weaknesses.
• Have a plan. “Dive in and sink or swim” is not a great strategy for launching your initiative. To keep you focused and moving forward you need to create some kind of plan. An excellent book to help you craft a road map is Michael Watkins’ “The First 90 Days – Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels.” Although a focus is leadership, the book can serve as an excellent guide for anybody starting a new job.

Number 172

You’ve probably heard many times that the ability to think and plan strategically is critical for both organizations and individual professionals. But it is not always clear just what that entails, and how you can get better at it.

By my definition, “strategic thinking” means looking at the big picture and developing insights about how all the parts relate to one another. “Strategic planning” means organizing those insights into action steps that will move you toward accomplishment of your critical goals.

If you want to enhance your strategic capability, here are ways to start:

• Begin with a pause. You can’t think clearly about the big picture if you are overwhelmed by details that need to be addressed in the next few hours. The great strategists routinely take time out to get some perspective. Regularly schedule blocks on your calendar for thinking about your goals and how to achieve them. This might mean setting aside a few minutes at the start of each day, or committing to a lunch time with just you, your calendar and your “to do” list. It also could mean mini-retreats for your whole group. The time you devote to reframing and broadening your viewpoint will pay off with greater accomplishments in the long run.
• Look around and listen. It’s harder to develop new insights if you stick to the same old routines. If you want to be more strategic, broaden your sources of information. Ask new questions, listen to different people, read something else and go to events you don’t typically attend.
• Launch your planning with a vision. Spend some time thinking about what you want to achieve and what success could look like. Start with the fundamentals, like the mission of the organization or your own core values. Then visualize what it will be like if you are wildly successful. Don’t get bogged down in text. Instead, make lists of the elements of success, and, better yet, draw a “mind map,” a diagram or picture. The more graphic your vision is, the more powerful it can be in shaping your activity. Techniques like “image boards,” where a collage of pictures illustrates your vision, can be effective because they engage more areas of your brain.
• Use the “Strategic Triangle.” Professors at Harvard’s Kennedy School came up with this model to help non-profit groups develop effective strategies. In my simplified version, you can “do the Triangle,” and lay the groundwork for your strategic plan, by asking three sets of questions:
  1. What is your vision? What are you trying to create? And how will that relate to your organization’s broader mission and/or your own key values?
  2. Who are the stakeholders? Before you start listing action items, think about everyone who could conceivably have an interest in, or be impacted by, your vision. What could your vision mean for your bosses, your customers, your colleagues and even regulators or rivals?
  3. What resources do you need? What will it take to build the capacity to make your vision a reality? What systems, procedures, expertise and channels of communication should you put in place?
• Know where you’re going and how to begin. Whether you’re crafting a multi-year strategy to guide a huge organization, or coming up with ways to make your life better, the essence of the planning process is identifying specific steps that will move you toward the vision. The most important elements of your plan are (1) a brief description of where you want to go and (2) a list of specific immediate steps, with due dates, to start you moving in that direction.
• Find a useful format. Your broad strategic vision can be in your head, but strategic plans should be in writing (and reread frequently). A simple plan might include your vision statement, your top three objectives, and your specific goals for the next week and the coming quarter. A key is that, with a quick look, the plan will make sense to you and the people you lead.
• Learn from the experts. Many books and websites offer strategic planning templates. For example, in his guide for mid-size businesses, “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits,” Verne Harnish offers a detailed strategic plan organizer that asks you to identify:
  • Targets (where you want to be in 3 to 5 years);
  • Goals (what you need to achieve in the coming year to move you toward your Targets); and
  • Actions (what steps are you going to take by specific dates to assure you reach your Goals).

Number 170

Busy professionals typically feel that they can’t squeeze one more obligation into their lives. So when I suggest that clients build some walking time into their schedules it can be a tough sell. But once they begin, they often discover that regular walking is a keystone of a highly productive career.

Recent research has shed new light on the transformative power of walking. Consider that walking can help you to:

• Enhance brainpower. A fascinating article in the April 22 New York Times Magazine summed it up this way: “Exercise, the latest neuroscience suggests, does more to bolster thinking than thinking does.” Author Gretchen Reynolds reported that exercise seems to slow or reverse the brain’s physical decay, much as it does with muscles. And the exercise needn’t be exhaustive. A study of older men and women found that regular walking made parts of their brains bigger and healthier. After one year, “the walkers had regained two years or more of hippocampal youth” (the hippocampus is an important part of the brain and is associated with memory).
• Solve problems. When you are feeling blocked or befuddled, a walking break can trigger a creative breakthrough. In his classic book, “The Breakout Principle,” Dr. Herbert Benson described how repetitive exercise like walking can activate a biological trigger that converts conflict and confusion into clarity and extraordinary performance. Walking can help you to change your mental patterns and start thinking in new ways.
• Reduce stress. Walking can change your body chemistry, countering the impact of stress hormones and calming your mind and body.
• Improve your mood. Regular aerobic exercise, including walking, helps people feel happier, partly because of the ways it allows the brain to function better. Walking 20 or 30 minutes every day has been shown to reduce depression for some people as effectively as a mild tranquilizer.
• Stay healthier. Regular walking been shown to reduce development risks and to combat the symptoms of many serious health conditions, ranging from strokes and heart disease to breast cancer and diabetes. Walking seems to benefit every part of the body, helping you to look and feel better and changing the way you age. Walking promotes the immune function, promotes better sleep, builds bones and supports weight loss.

Are you convinced about the benefits of walking but don’t know where to start? Try these tips to launch your program:

• Start small. Begin today by walking just a little bit more. If you aren’t walking much at all now, commit to walking ten minutes every day for the next week. Then in the following week increase your walking schedule by five minutes a day.
• Accumulate steps. You don’t have to do all your walking in one block. You get the benefits of 30 minutes of walking if you take three ten-minute walks in the course of your day.
• Build on normal activity. A great thing about walking is that it does not require special clothes and you can incorporate it into the course of a regular workday. For example, instead of talking with a colleague over a cup of coffee you might suggest a walk around the block.
• Keep track. It will be easier to build your walking habit if you keep track of how much you do. You can count your steps and measure the distance of your walks by wearing a pedometer. My favorite device is my Fitbit, a small clip that I wear on my waistband. The Fitbit not only counts steps but also tracks calories burned, and it connects wirelessly with the site I use for logging food and exercise.